Family Car Feud: Three Generations of RS4 and an RS2 Drag for Wagon Superiority

Over the last 25-ish years, Audi has been refining the model of the Uber-wagon. Starting with the RS2, Audi’s first RS, and rolling right along to the latest RS4, the brand has been working hard on muscle cars that also work as family cars. So which generation is the best?

Well, if you ask CarWow and their now familiar series of landing strip drag races, it’s the B9 RS4. Not simply the fastest of the cars here (it was always going to be) but because reviewer Mat Watson calls it the best RS car Audi has ever made.

Arguing that turbocharged engines just suit RS cars with their unexpected oomph, he says it’s the most comfortable, the best suited for its modern competition, and the easiest to drive very, very quickly.

An unexpected second favorite reveals itself, though. As was perhaps predictable, given above comments, Watson prefers the B5 RS4 to the B7 RS4. Despite being endowed with that seductive 4.2-liter V8, the numb steering and the weight conspire to make it less exciting than the B5.

The B5, although it only has a turbocharged V6, feels manic, hurried, and really good, says Watson.

The RS2, meanwhile, is the big loser in this test. In both the drag races and the speed tests, the RS2 feels its age. With lots of understeer, lots of turbo lag, and distinctly 1994 speeds, it’s just not the easy all-rounder that the later RS4s became. It also is disadvantaged by the fact that it’s an extremely rare and desirable car with only 3,000 miles on the odometer. I don’t want to make too many assumptions, but given the RS2’s easy launches, I suspect that it was being treated with kid gloves in the video. In the rolling race, it shows its true pace a little better.

The post Family Car Feud: Three Generations of RS4 and an RS2 Drag for Wagon Superiority appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2QRBtMj
via IFTTT

Comments

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier. The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow. While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something . To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it. Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait. So with this in mind, we lined our G...

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers. The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience. So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf. In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog